In Which I Try to Explain What I am Actually Doing Here

This is difficult, since I am not entirely certain myself.  I am working as an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) at a teacher's training college, which doesn't mean what you may think it means.  The education system in Tanzania is as follows:

• Primary school: standards 1-7, mandatory for all children, but not really enforced.  Age of pupils: pretty youngish.  Medium of instruction: Kiswahili.  Teacher qualifications: have successfully completed primary school.

• Secondary school O level: forms 1-4.  I think students have to pass some test to get in.   Age of pupils: less youngish but typically adolescents.  Medium of instruction: English.  Teacher qualifications: have completed teacher training college.

• Secondary school A level: forms 5-6.  Students must definitely pass some tests in O level to get in.  Age of pupils: older adolescents-20 somethings.   Medium of instruction: English.  Teacher qualifications: have completed teacher training college.

• Teacher Training College: 2 years.  Students must have completed A level, but typically did not score well enough to enter university.  Age of pupils: wildly varies.  Medium of instruction: English.  Teacher qualifications: I think hold University degree?  I could be making that up.  

• University: I know nothing about this, but children have to complete A level and pass some tests to get in.  

So I am at a teacher college and I have some periods that I am supposed to be teaching but I have been told feel free to take some time to not teach them for the first week or 3 or more, and here's a list of stuff we would like you to fix.  I'm not wild about the teaching, since from what I understand, I actually have to teach the official government ICT syllabus, and after doing some internship teaching at a local secondary school, I think what I really need to be teaching is how to maintain a computer lab.  Tanzania's current problem as I see it, is that it keeps having money thrown at it but doesn't really have the personnel or education to do something with the money when caught.  I was interning at a computer lab that would have been fairly nice if anyone had done anything to keep the computers from breaking, or actually used the lab to teach computers, but there weren't really any teachers there who knew anything, and secondary schools have high teacher turnover.

Alternatively, I could spend a lot of time fixing computer stuff here and at other schools.  This actually seems fairly attractive since it would also mean I could probably travel around the country on Peace Corps money fixing people's stuff.  The problem being I don't see that as being a terribly sustainable project unless I can find/train a Tanzanian to be me once I leave.

In the meantime, I am just attempting to put together a livable house that has a bare minimum of stuff.  Today I managed to drink real coffee for the third time in country* following a trip to the expensive wazungu supermarket in town, since according to a 19-year-old friend of mine here, only lazy men without jobs drink coffee.  This isn't strictly true, but coffee usually only shows up here in the form of nasty instant stuff and if I hadn't brought a french press from the states, I would be struggling with the problem of where to find a coffee maker.   There is always the cheap unroasted beans one can buy in the marketplace, but I left my grinder in US.  Also, I'm not sure I have the dedication necessary to roast my own beans.

Tomorrow I will configure a router and solve other first world problems, as well as attend a staff meeting conducted in Kiswahili that I don't understand, but there will be chai.  

*1st time: swankiest hotel in town.  They had a leather couch.  They brought me coffee in a French Press.  I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  2nd time: dinner party with Europeans.  They also had ice cream.  I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven, but I was slightly intimidated by the perfectly balanced table and dressing for dinner and multiplicity of forks, heretofore only encountered in Georgette Heyer mystery novels.